Bottle feeding help needed, Please!

[mspj]

I just received to young boer doe's, one is 3 weeks the other is about 10 weeks. Both have been with their mothers plus bottle fed with goat milk replacer as they were both from triplet births. I have the same replacer just need to know how much to give each one. The older one is nibbling on feed and hay, the younger one only nursing. The 3 week old has diarrhea, what should I give for this.

Would like to switch them over to cow's milk, when the posters on this forum say whole cow's milk are they referring to fresh whole cow milk or store bought 3.25% as being whole. I do not have access to fresh so would have to stay with replacer or is there a mixture of store bought that would be OK?

Any and all help appreciated.

Will post pictures shortly

 

[Latestarter]

Just regular old store bought whole milk (not 2%/1%/skim/0%fat). Some goat kids develop scours from the "formulated" milk products. You might want to get a fecal done on the one scouring to make sure it's not parasites. Take its temp to make sure it's not running a fever. As for how much to feed... @babsbag or @ragdollcatlady and I think @Ferguson K are familiar with boar's... I'm pretty sure as far as feeding quantity it would be the same as any other full sized breed... Hope you get it all straightened out.

 

[mspj]

This is Coco, 3 weeks old.

 

[mspj]

This is socks, 10 weeks old.

 

[mspj]

Both

 

[Ferguson K]

Socks can ALMOST be safely weaned at ten weeks. You can start introducing foods now. Forage, roughage, etc. She will nibblen on things outdoors as she is learning what she can and can't eat. This is ok. Cut back on her bottles and let her start eating.

As for Coco, at a week old she should be eating 8oz or so a feeding. Be careful if she acts hungry after eating, do not over feed. Mom goat would only let the kid sucklea few seconds at a time throughout the day.

 

[mspj]

Socks did not take a bottle at the evening feeding, she was nibbling on feed when I took them out of the pen.

When taking temperature, what is normal?

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Those look like good sized kids!

I have use whole cows milk from the store 4% and I take 2 cups out of the gallon, add 1 cup greek yogurt with live active cultures and 1 cup whole cream to the gallon. Shake well. I used this to supplement 2 out of 3 boer kids last year, but they were also getting milk from mom. I offered 8 oz 2 times a day to start and within a few weeks we were at 16oz.

At 3 weeks the youngest should be eating some pellets and nibbling hay. I would weigh her, and maybe start by offering 8 oz, 3 times a day and if she does well, decide how much to add from there. She might need more depending on her weight, but with diarrhea, I would purposely feed less milk until I got that under control. Keep hay and goat pellets available if you can so they will be encouraged to taste them often. I would not worry about the older one 10 weeks getting milk, but would let her learn to eat solid food if she were here. (Or the softee that I am, I might offer her a consolation bottle of only a few oz so she isn't left out while the other one eats.)

I am not sure what advice to offer about the scours as I have yet to deal with it yet, except to say that I would be sure to check and treat for coccidia and worms if that hasn't been taken care of yet.

 

[SandDherds]

My 2 Bucklings I'm bottle feeding only have 500 ml every 4-6 hrs they are 2 and 3 weeks old plus they have a pasture they forage in all day I feed a week old lamb the same amount and they all do great on a ALL Animal Product Milk replacer not one made of SOY its also breed specific but the lamb does fine aswell
but the kid in my profile pic was raised on whole cows milk that is a great idea too

 

[Southern by choice]

A 3week old Boer needs more than 8 oz 3x day.

We feed that to Nigerian dwarves at 1-2 weeks as long as they weren't under 2 lbs
Our Miniatures at 2 weeks are getting (twin does)12-15 oz and 16oz (single doe) 3x day.
Our 8 week old Lamanchas get 20oz 3x day

Rolls farm has a great feeding schedule for Boers.
I found it in the archives from before the change-over

http://www.backyardherds.com/web/viewblog.php?id=586